Teachers, parents, students, board members – everyone had an opinion. Should it be ConnectEd Math or not?

It was inspiring to see folks focused on curriculum rather than the issues that sometimes take board time. Math is a pretty essential set of skills.

But it brought to mind the question I put to law students in Law of Electronic Media.

“Is cable television more like the telephone network or more like a broadcasting network?”

The correct answer? “Professor, that’s the wrong question.”

Perhaps posing an either/or math choice was equally inappropriate.

John Gardner writes of multiple intelligences. IQ and standardized tests measure some useful aptitudes, but not all. For example, they don’t test for motor coordination, musical pitch, social skills or leadership qualities.

Pediatrician Mel Levine uses brain function studies to explain multiple ways of learning. Charles Schwab, a dyslexic, gave him $10 million for Levine’s All Kinds of Minds non-profit institute.

Perhaps, instead of thinking of buildings, classes, and subjects we ought to tailor our educational offerings to the unique combinations of aptitudes of 10,500 individual learners.

We’re already doing it with the special education students. It’s called an “individual education plan,” or IEP.

Why not have an IEP for every student? College Community School District, up the road, proposed just that.

Any teacher can tell you why not. That kind of individual attention might be many teachers’ ideal. But the way we’re doing it, with 150 students passing through a high school classroom each day, such individual attention is a utopian impossibility.

Could we get there?

Other universities and colleges, government agencies and corporations, school districts and adult education programs have done it.

There will never be a substitute for a professional, caring teacher. But there can be supplements.

And one of those supplements offers the possibility of an individualized, constantly modifiable, 12-year course of study for each student.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m talking about an Internet-based body of material that can be individually tailored to each student’s aptitudes, current interests, and most efficient methods of learning.

With a computer in the home Internet learning can go on 24/7.

Not as a substitute for classroom instruction. Not as the only thing kids do in school. A supplement.

Students are already comfortable using the Internet for games and learning. Educational programs simply focus their effort.

One example is Skills Tutor. The company provides a wide range of material for K-12, community colleges, and others. Evaluating software is not my expertise, but a local software evaluator gives it thumbs up for its limited purpose.

Skills Tutor preps students for standardized tests, including Iowa’s. Of 116,000 students using the program in 400 schools, the average increase from pre to post-test scores is 60 percent. If Iowa is going to require “teaching to the test” anyway at least Skills Tutor can remove that burden from the teacher.

“Pre-tests” establish the level at which to begin. No more students bored with the pace, covering material they already know. No more frustrated students left behind.

The test-based assigned material explains basic concepts with examples, provides 10 guided practices, and gives immediate feedback on answers. There’s another quiz after a five-lesson cluster and a post-test once an academic area is completed. Wrong answers are presented for review and analysis.

A variety of statistical feedback for teachers helps identify students most in need of one-on-one attention – or a modification of their online curriculum.

What Skills Tutor does for standardized tests today other programs could do for an entire curriculum tomorrow.

Teachers could spend part of their time as mentors to self-learners.

Should we force computer programs on every teacher in the district? Of course not.

But if we have teachers and parents with enthusiasm for a pilot project it might be money very well spent.

Nicholas Johnson is an Iowa City School Board member. More information is available on his Web site www.nicholasjohnson.org.